sententiousness means the state or condition of being sententious. It carries an Arena rating of 1262, earned across 21 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, sententiousness ranks #3,016 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #3,580 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #5,906 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #5,995 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words.
Why “sententiousness” is a great word
The quality of expressing oneself, especially on moral matters, in a terse, aphoristic, and self-importantly pompous manner. From sententious (from Middle English, from Latin sententiōsus, from sententia, "opinion, judgment, maxim") + the English suffix -ness, forming abstract nouns denoting a state or quality. Unlike succinctness, which pares language to its clean, efficient core, or didacticism, which aims principally to instruct, sententiousness is moral brevity swollen with its own gravity. It is the epigram polished to a smug, unanswerable sheen; the platitude delivered as if newly carved on a tablet; the sound of a dinner guest who speaks exclusively in polished axioms. It is a performance of wisdom that mistakes compression for truth, leaving only the chill of judgment in the air.
Etymology
From sententious + -ness.
noun
- The state or condition of being sententious.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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